Hi all,
I've been looking and looking for the link on how to combat gnats in potting soil and I can't, for the life of me, find it.
I've got some cutting hanging out in cups in my kitchen and the gnats are driving us nuts. I've tried trapping them with tape but that hasn't been too successful.
If any of you have access to the thread, please point me in the right direction.
Thanks,
LoraB.
Those (*$&#^ gnats!!
Hi Lora, I've used a product called ScanMask all winter and had great results. Absolutely no gnats, no aphids and no mites at all! I love it. You just sprinkle a little on the top of the soil. I think the shipping is free.
http://www.planetnatural.com/site/beneficial-nematodes.html
You can also try mosquito products that contain Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis also known as BTi. It is not harmful to us or most things.
http://msssa4.msss.gouv.qc.ca/santpub/westnil.nsf/0/cec4035566c6561685256ea7006ca01c?OpenDocument
I just bought it as little chunks and I add it to my watering. It works great for me.
Gee Brinda, if it kills mites I may have to try ScanMask again. It worked OK for me one year but I didn't really think it did better than the BTi. Plus I had to online order it, and I am so lazy. I wish I could remember about mites that winter.
If they are buzzing around get out the hand vacuum and suck them up - works pretty well, just don't suck the leaves.
Voleck Oil mixed in water has worked for me. I use it as a spray and then also water with it. It is supposed to suffocate them. It leaves the leaves shiney - when the gnats land on the leaves - they also stick and can't fly away. I recently learned that a gnats life is only about 7 days. Guess they multiply rapidly. It is getting warmer and I can't wait to get all these plants outside.
Crystal
Is Scanmask the same stuff you would put on your lawn for grubs? Beneficial nemetodes?
I only have 6 little 16 oz plastic cups with cutting in them. Would that work for something in my kitchen? The description kinda gives me the willies. :-)
Lora
If your cuttings are in soil, I saw somewhere that if you cover the surface with diotomaceous earth, that will take care of the gnats. If they are in water, seems like someone said to spray with lysol disinfectant, but I wouldn't swear to it.
Hi LoraB,
Apparently fungus gnats are caused by bad watering practices so I have been told.
Well I just read that solution in another group and the gal there swears by this...a capful of Murphys Oil Soap in a gallon of water and just put enough of it in the soil until it runs out the bottom. Do this twice - seven days apart.
I mixed up a batch and it is quite milky so was a bit leery but she said it does work...so if you want to try it on a plant that doesn't matter and see for yourself.
Another thing I use is a indoor bug zapper and that catches lots of them little buggers!
Another product that works good too is to sprinkle Zeolite on the surface but then I found I couldn't tell when the soil was dry.
I am going to give it a go too.
Joanne
someone said fabric softener sheets and someone else said a light layer of sand .
I spray the soil with the killer mix of all of my poisons that I use to get the abpve soil pests... like the mites and white flies... and the aphids.. it keeps them knocfked down in the soil... also a way I get a few a night ... is to shut down all of the lights in the room.. keeping the computer monitor on.. pretty soon you'll have one or two leave the pots and come to the monitor's light .. then I just press them into the digital age... Gordon